Cultural Diversity and Cultural Ramifications in Criminal Justice

The Supreme Court has repeatedly asserted that a defendant is not entitled to a jury composed in whole or in part of persons of his own race. Although these rulings establish that states are not obligated to use racially mixed juries, they do not prohibit states from doing so. In fact, a number of policymakers and legal scholars have proposed reforms that use racial criteria to promote racial diversity on American juries. Some have suggested that the names of majority race jurors be removed from the jury list (thus ensuring a larger proportion of racial minorities); others have suggested that a certain number of seats on each jury be set aside for racial minorities.

In 2-3 pages state: (with references)
How would you justify these reforms to a state legislature?
How would an opponent of these reforms respond?

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There are a number of reasons that could be used to justify juror reforms to a state legislature. One way that jury reform would help to make the judicial process more reasonable and fair, is to ensure the an individual has the right to be judged by a jury of his peers. It is stated in the Constitution that individuals have the right to be judged by a jury of their peers, and peers usually mean individuals that are in some manner socially associated with the person that is being tried. Due to the fact that the United States is composed of neighborhoods that are largely separated demographically, an individual's peers would usually be members of his own race or cultural group. In addition, the most common definition of peer makes reference to an individual's social status as one of the main criteria for being the member of a peer group. So demographically and social economically speaking, a jury of one's peers would technically need to be comprised of individuals of similar races, class, cultures, income levels, education, etc., in order to be accurately described of as a jury of one's peers.

In addition, the use of racial diversity has been used in many aspects of American society in order to increase equality in many areas of American life. The school busing program is an example of an attempt to increase racial diversity in schools, in order to ensure that all students have access to quality school equipment and teaching staff. So it stands to reason that racial diversity is an important factor in ...